Charities’ spend on advertising and campaigning compared with levels of service delivery to beneficiaries has come under scrutiny by the Public Administration Select Committee.

The Committee (PASC) met with Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO and Thomas Hughes-Hallett, chief executive of Marie Curie Cancer Care this morning to discuss the voluntary sector’s role in public service delivery and the Big Society.

Sir Stuart warned that government plans to encourage philanthropy and social investment were not being carried out quickly enough to counter the effect of public spending cuts which were starting to bite.

Hughes-Hallett added that the sector was seen as a soft target by local authorities and the situtation was very difficult.

PASC chair Bernard Jenkin suggested a league table of local authorities which would look at how much was being cut from the voluntary sector.

The conversation, however, quickly turned to the activities of charities, with Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke criticising charities that chose to campaign or lobby rather than provide services to beneficiaries.

He singled out to Shelter and NSPCC who he said concentrated on advertising and campaigns, and in the case of Shelter “did not provide shelter for the homeless”.

Conservative MP Robert Halfon added that it was hard to know from charity accounts how much was spent on political campaigning and advertising and called for this to be included.

In response, Hughes-Hallett conceded that there was concern around the spending on advertising by large charities: “I am conscious that a handful of large charities spend too much on advertising. Barnardo’s and Marie Curie Cancer Care have talked about this in relation to other charities in similar areas to ours.”

But on the point of campaigning, he asserted it was sometimes necessary for charities to speak up: “A new £750m cancer strategy fund had no mention of terminally ill patients,” said Hughes-Hallett, “so I feel I have to speak out on behalf of my beneficiaries. There are shades of grey in political campaigning.”

Sir Stuart added that a good charity did both campaigning and providing support for beneficiaries, acting within charity law.

Sir Stuart: Bankers should give bonuses to charity

Meanwhile, speaking before the committee hearing, Sir Stuart had called on bankers to give their bonuses to charity in order to set an example and provide a “shot in the arm for the voluntary and community sector”.

His Acevo counterpart, Sir Stephen Bubb, had previously called for a 50 per cent tax on bankers’ bonuses to fund the Big Society Bank.